Career highlight for Taupō Supercars winner Andre Heimgartner
Saturday, 20 April 2024
Andre Heimgartner managed to pick up just the second Supercars win of his career.
Four New Zealand drivers finished in the top 10.
A win on Sunday would hand Heimgartner the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy.
Andre Heimgartner described his Supercars win in Taupō on Saturday as one of the highlights of his career, because he was able to do it in front of his family and Kiwi motorsport fans.
It was just the second win in 273 Supercars races for Heimgartner, who made his first appearance in a Supercar in 2014 and it was fitting that the winner of the maiden race at the inaugural Taupō Super 400 was a New Zealander.
“It’s definitely a highlight,” Heimgartner said.
“For a Kiwi to win at home is very special. My family is here and they don’t get to go to many races.
“So there is all that sort of stuff and it definitely rates as the highest one and if you picked throughout the year, it’s up there with a Bathurst-type race for us.
“To be doing burnouts at the end in front of the crowd and hearing them over the car was awesome.
“Being a Kiwi and watching Shane (van Gisbergen), Greg Murphy, all of those guys do that when I was one of the ones in the grandstand cheering, it’s definitely very special.”
Heimgartner, who was born in Auckland but now lives in Perth, took the lead on lap nine and held onto it for the remainder of the race, seeing off the strong challenge from Chaz Mostert, up until a wheel fell off the Australian’s car on lap 42.
But the 28-year-old Heimgartner said he always felt like it would be difficult for Mostert to get past him.
“I think Chaz was probably outright faster than me, but I had a lot better drive, which meant I could keep him behind me,” Mostert said.
“I had to not make any mistakes and then his wheel fell off, which released me a bit.
“It wasn’t cruisy by any stretch, he was all over me like a dirty rag the whole time, but our car was good in the areas I needed.”
Four Kiwis finished in the top 10, with Ryan Wood fourth, Richie Stanaway sixth and Jaxon Evans 10.
“It’s a good time to be a motorsport fan. There are so many Kiwis in the category, and in good equipment too,” Heimgartner said.
“Going into this weekend I was hoping I’d be the top Kiwi, but Matt Payne, Richie Stanaway and Ryan Wood have been in some good form.
'It’s definitely great to be among the top Kiwis, but we have a pretty stacked lineup at the moment.”
It was an exceptional race for the 20-year-old Wood, who just missed out on a spot on the podium, but showed he’s a driver with immense talent.
“The race was great. P4, I’m pretty gutted I didn’t get a trophy. I made a mistake and that kind of cost us a trophy,” Wood said.
“We probably should have had two cars up on the podium. Chaz was super fast, but unlucky and it would have been a great points haul for our team.
“But there are a lot of positives to take out of today, we’ve got fast race cars and we can build on that tomorrow.”
Stanaway arguably had the race of the day, climbing 17 places to finish sixth and showing how well he can handle wet conditions.
“I’m stoked,” Stanaway said.
“I mucked up qualifying this morning and was pretty embarrassed about it. So it’s nice to make up for it and have a good result.
“I was pretty confident we could go forward, maybe didn’t expect to get up to sixth. “Halfway through the race, I was feeling like we were ahead of where we wanted to get to and I tried to get to the leaders, but I didn’t quite have it.”
This was Evans’s first top 10 finish in Supercars and it showed that he’s continuing to make progress in a car that was one of the worst on the grid when being driven by Jack Smith last year.
“The qualifying I was a bit frustrated with, after yesterday’s pace,” Evans said.
“But they were difficult conditions and I didn’t quite extract everything out of myself and the car.
“I started 17th, but I knew it was going to be a pretty long race, whether it was going to be wet or dry and it turned out to be wet for all of it.
“I’m really happy we kept chipping our way forward and the team made some good calls and got me out of the carnage.
“So I’m really happy to have finished 10th in my first race in New Zealand and it being my first top 10 finish in Supercars.”
Meanwhile, Matt Payne finished 13th after having issues with an early spin and then being caught out by double stacking at a pitstop.